Coping Power Program
(May 2010-present)
Adaptations of evidence-based practice in community settings have received little attention. This issue is particularly problematic among low income, urban youth, who are at risk for emotional and behavioral difficulties likely stemming from contextual circumstances, and who have limited access to effective intervention services. For this project, we conduct school-based assessments evaluating (a) neurodevelopmental and contextual factors that may predict intervention outcomes; and (b) an adapted version of the Coping Power program, a cognitive-behavioral intervention shown to reduce behavior problems among children. Children are assessed pre- and post-intervention using a well-validated battery of neurodevelopmental (e.g., memory, verbal abilities) and contextual (e.g., peer, neighborhood) measures. Youth participate in the group-based Coping Power program, designed to teach anger management, learn perspective-taking and social problem-solving techniques, and make improvements toward social goals. We aim to evaluate adaptation of this intervention to better address challenges among diverse youth, identify children at risk for continued challenges, and determine predictors of intervention outcomes.
Neuropsychological and Biological Factors Associated with Risk and Resilience for Cognitive Decline
(March 2020-present)
Alzheimer’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD), and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) represent enormous public health concerns. The putative etiological processes, risk factors, correlates, phenotypic presentations, and trajectories associated with AD are heterogeneous. This project leverages two large-scale, prospective data sets of participants from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center, a sample drawn from 39 National Institute on Aging-funded AD Centers, and the Framingham Heart Study, an epidemiological, community-dwelling sample. The goals are to identify neuropsychological profiles in both data sets across multiple time points; to consider prospective stability and transitions of profile membership that might indicate risk for cognitive decline or resilience (i.e., attenuated decline despite membership in a risk profile); to test whether biological or psychosocial processes are associated with such stability or transitions; and to determine profiles most associated with risk for neuropsychological decline and subsequent diagnoses of AD and MCI. The proposed project will include parallel analyses of Caucasian and ethnic minority participants to assess potential health disparities.